1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to electric rotating machines that are used in, for example, motor vehicles as electric motors and electric generators. In addition, the invention can also be applied to industrial machines and household electrical appliances.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, there are known electric rotating machines which include an armature core and a multi-phase armature coil wound around the armature core.
Moreover, there is disclosed, for example in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-54404, an electric rotating machine which includes an armature coil that is formed by winding thin electric wires around an armature core using a distributed winding method.
However, with the distributed winding method, the thin electric wires may be irregularly wound around the armature core, thereby lowering the space factors of the thin electric wires in slots of the armature core and increasing the axial length of coil ends of the armature coil. Here, the coil ends denote those parts of the armature coil which are located outside of the slots of the armature core and respectively protrude from opposite axial end faces of the armature core.
Moreover, the thin electric wires may easily become slack at the coil ends of the armature coil and in the slots of the armature core, thereby resulting in an uneven impedance distribution and thus an uneven electric current distribution in the armature coil.